Day 22 and 23

So my Sunday and Labor day were spent carefully removing trim and cleaning the car for paint prep.  On Sunday night I was able to get the two doors stripped down including the trim strips and mirrors.  What a treat that was, but had to be done.  I also tackled the rear trim which meant removing the taillights again.  It all went well, minus my arms looking like I got in a fight with an alley cat.  It is amazing the amount of effort required to remove what is such a small piece on the car, well pieces.  The biggest, riskiest task that I tackled was to remove the hatch glass.  I looked at every conceivable way to make the paintjob work without removing it, but there is no way around it.  It has to come off.  So I loosened the hinges and stuffed some towels under the glass to release the hinges from the halo of the car.  Once it was sitting released from the car, I carefully picked it up and moved into the house.  After the glass was out of the way, I was able to take a closer look at the weather stripping, it is in good shape, but it has to come off too.  It actually came off in one single piece without any damage.  Since its already fitted correctly, I’ll set it aside for reuse.  Sums up Sunday night. 

Monday was all about getting the front bumper and headlights off.  I’ll need to respray the headlights and the only way to get them apart is to remove them too.  Actually pretty simple task, it took longer to get the electrical connectors unhooked than it did to pull the housings.  But they are off now…  time for the bumper.  Lots of bolts and nuts, what a pain, but I took my time, bagged and labeled the bolts and nuts, and with the exception of 2 stubborn bolts that had corroded to the speed nuts, it went well.  With all the fasteners removed, I was able to peel the bumper off and work on removing the trim strips.  Those came off without too much of a fight.  I had to slot two of the bolts to give me a way to keep the bolts from spinning while I broke the nuts loose.  After the trim was removed, I gave the car a dish soap bath.  That’s all for today… it is a holiday after all.

Parts replaced this week:

None

Parts cost so far: $1425